Conan O’Brien has checked Morocco off his Must Go list.
O’Brien posted a photo of himself and longtime assistant Sona Movsesian atop camels this weekend, captioning it: “Sona and I are taking Ubers back to the airport. Farewell, Morocco!”
The Morocco trip was the final shoot for the upcoming third season of Conan O’Brien Must Go. Longtime Conan writer José Arroyo, who works on the HBO Max travel series, shared a behind-the-scenes dispatch from Morocco on his Substack, Diary of a Nearsighted Man, writing that the trip took the crew to Casablanca, “sandy points east,” and Marrakesh.
Arroyo also confirmed that Movsesian came along for the trip, teasing that she and O’Brien spent the week “bantering and bickering like siblings.”
“The shots of them riding camels is worth a one-month HBO subscription; cancel anytime,” he wrote.
While HBO Max has not officially announced how many episodes Season 3 will include, O’Brien has now been seen filming in India, the Philippines, the Netherlands, and Morocco. (The first season of Conan O’Brien Must Go ran four episodes, while Season 2 consisted of three.) The show was renewed for Season 3 in March 2025, ahead of its second-season premiere.
The Morocco stop fits neatly into the larger Must Go playbook. The HBO Max series grew out of O’Brien’s Conan O’Brien Needs a Fan podcast, with past episodes seeing him connect with fans he first on the podcast.
O’Brien has spoken with at least three Moroccan listeners in recent memory—each of whom gave him a different comic doorway into the country.
One, Yassir from Casablanca, confessed he had never seen Casablanca, prompting O’Brien to declare, “First of all, I’m coming to Casablanca and I’m going to show you the movie Casablanca,” before pitching a trench-coat-and-hat tour of the city.
Another fan, Yasmina from Marrakesh, told O’Brien he would stand out in Morocco—less as a tourist than as a landmark. “You’d be the tallest thing there,” she told him. (Fan-shot video of O’Brien in Jemaa el-Fnaa Square, below, confirms she was right.)
A third Moroccan fan, Yousra (also from Marrakesh), pitched O’Brien on a traditional hammam experience, complete with what she described as a “violent massage,” followed by mint tea. O’Brien interpreted the itinerary as something closer to an interrogation than a spa day.
There’s another possible Morocco connection, too. In a 2017 appearance on Conan, Moroccan-born French comedian Gad Elmaleh told O’Brien he wanted to take him to Morocco—and specifically to a hammam. Whether Elmaleh, Yassir, Yasmina, Usra, or any of O’Brien’s other Moroccan contacts made it into the episode remains to be seen.
Arroyo did, however, offer a small taste of what apparently didn’t make the cut: “The Lawrence of Arabia costume,” “several fake beards,” and “cobra puppets.”
HBO Max has yet to announce a premiere date for Conan O’Brien Must Go Season 3.
